Exposure to secondhand smoke and asthma severity among children in Connecticut

To determine whether secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure is associated with greater asthma severity in children with physician-diagnosed asthma living in CT, and to examine whether area of residence, race/ethnicity or poverty moderate the association.

A large childhood asthma database in CT (Easy Breathing) was linked by participant zip code to census data to classify participants by area of residence. Multinomial logistic regression models, adjusted for enrollment date, sex, age, race/ethnicity, area of residence, insurance type, family history of asthma, eczema, and exposure to dogs, cats, gas stove, rodents and cockroaches were used to examine the association between self-reported exposure to SHS and clinician-determined asthma severity (mild, moderate, and severe persistent vs. intermittent asthma).

Of the 30,163 children with asthma enrolled in Easy Breathing, between 6 months and 18 years old, living in 161 different towns in CT, exposure to SHS was associated with greater asthma severity (adjusted relative risk ratio (aRRR): 1.07 [1.00, 1.15] and aRRR: 1.11 [1.02, 1.22] for mild and moderate persistent asthma, respectively). The odds of Black and Puerto Rican/Hispanic children with asthma being exposed to SHS were twice that of Caucasian children. Though the odds of SHS exposure for publicly insured children with asthma were three times greater than the odds for privately insured children (OR: 3.02 [2.84,3,21]), SHS exposure was associated with persistent asthma only among privately insured children (adjusted odds ratio (aOR): 1.23 [1.11,1.37]).

This is the first large-scale pragmatic study to demonstrate that children exposed to SHS in Connecticut have greater asthma severity, clinically determined using a systematic approach, and varies by insurance status.